Keynote speakers for DIS 2017.

Salvatore Iaconesi

OPENING KEYNOTE

He teaches Near Future Design and Multi Platform Digital Design at ISIA Design Florence and, in the past, at “La Sapienza” University of Rome, at the Rome University of Fine Arts and at the IED Design institute.

Salvatore has founded AOS in 2004, is President at HER (previously HE), and co-founder at Nefula.

His focus is at the intersection of Arts, Design, Technologies, Sciences and Business. He creates projects that are at the same time artworks, scientific research and business models, addressing fundamental issues in culture, inclusion, human rights, economy and access to knowledge and education.

Di Mainstone

CLOSING KEYNOTE

A Wired innovation fellow and artist in residence for the European city of science 2016, Di Mainstone creates sonic instruments that combine sculpture, dance, architecture and technology. Di is founder of the Human Harp – a digital musical device that transforms suspension bridges into giant harps so that people can play them. She was invited to be a global ambassador for audio brand Sennheiser who told her she had invented “the largest instrument in the world!”

Di is an artist in residence at Queen Mary University of London, where she collaborates with researchers from the School of Engineering to develop sonic instruments that are “body-centric” and transform physical movement into sound via digital technology. She has invented the term “movician” to describe the player of her wearable instruments – part-mover part-musician. Di has expanded her research into technology through international art-science residencies at institutes such as Eyebeam Centre for Art and Technology in New York, XS Labs in Montreal, V2_Institute for the Unstable Media in Rotterdam and currently the European City of Science.

Di has joined a host of international institutes as visiting tutor, such as Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design, London College of Fashion, New York University and Concordia University in Montreal. Her sonic devices have been exhibited extensively, most notably at The V&A, The Barbican, The National Portrait Gallery, Eyebeam NYC and the Swedish National Touring Theatre. Di’s work has been featured by CBC Radio ‘q’ with Shad, BBC World Service, New Yorker, New York Times, Time Out and The Observer. Her creations can also be seen in short films, which she writes and directs.